This was stolen from the org's grocery store. Does anyone know who has it?
[Edited 5/27/05 8:25am]

A lot of the "fams" don't know a thing about funk except for the groups they heard influenced Prince when he was growing up such as Sly And The Family Stone, Earth, Wind, & Fire, James Brown, Parliament, etc.

When it comes to groups like The Barkays, Cameo, Lakeside, Midnight Star, Brick, The Brothers Johnson, Sun, Bill Summers & Summers Heat, etc.....they have never heard of them.

The only reason they know about Rick James is because he didn't like Prince.

murph said:

But I was really trying to show some of the "FAM" members of our site to look beyond our boy..

A lot of the "fams" don't know a thing about funk except for the groups they heard influenced Prince when he was growing up such as Sly And The Family Stone, Earth, Wind, & Fire, James Brown, Parliament, etc.

When it comes to groups like The Barkays, Cameo, Lakeside, Midnight Star, Brick, The Brothers Johnson, Sun, Bill Summers & Summers Heat, etc.....they have never heard of them.

The only reason they know about Rick James is because he didn't like Prince.

I know a lot about those funk bands in bold.

Speaking of Cameo, why did they have to wait until 1986 to finally have a video on MTV?

[/color]

Tony, I am glad that you're Funkateer like myself. You know as well myself why MTV wouldn't play Cameo video-racist politics. I must say that MTV really hated on the Funk big time w/the exception of Prince and that's a damn shame.

vainandy said:

Cool....But it's not even about the young heads VS. the old heads...It's about just having a well-rounded view of history..Hell...there's plenty of shit that I don't know that a younger cat can put me on to...and vice versa....

Great call...they did hate on the funk (and anything that seemed overtly Black)...But we all have to remember that MTV started when... '81? By 1982-83 Prince was making noise with the 1999 album...Now as much as tracks like "DMSR" and "Lady Cab Driver" were rolling in the funk, Prince's singles (1999, LRC, Delirious) were ROCK oriented tracks...So I would not put Prince in that early FUNK bunch of the '80s...Our boy could FUNK with the best of them, but he wasn't trying to be a FUNk artist back then...Dude was a rocker who could funk, which helped him cross-over in a big way (among other obvious reasons)....
[Edited 5/28/05 1:21am]

One of the earliest videos by an African-American played on MTV was "Electric Avenue" by Eddy Grant and he doesn't fit into that so callled bi-racial crossover mold.

They were tripping about not playing Diana Ross' video for the song "Pieces Of Ice". There was a small protest about that.

One of the earliest videos by an African-American played on MTV was "Electric Avenue" by Eddy Grant and he doesn't fit into that so callled bi-racial crossover mold.

They were tripping about not playing Diana Ross' video for the song "Pieces Of Ice". There was a small protest about that.

Where is that Koolaid?????!!!!!

Once again...it wasn't JUST about race...it was a combination of race and music...Eddy Grant's Electric Ave. was ROCK, guitar driven with a little reggae thrown in...But being the pretty boy, is-he-black-or-white superstar helped with MJ and Prince...Tina Turner was given a pass because of her affiliation with white rock acts...There was more than just "a little protest..." They were talking about the shit on Evening News Talk Shows when Rick and other artists called them out on it...Nile Rogers was talking about it, Jesse Jackson (when he had real clout) was talking about...They finally broke down and started playing Kool And The Gang videos...That's what happened....Peep the clip at the bottom....



#

Piece from an old story on MTV:

An April 8, 1983, article in People magazine quoted the late funk star Rick James threatening to sue the network over its "blatant racism."

"'A lot of black asses are going to come together and explode on MTV,' James fumes," the article said. "'There are no blacks on MTV's program list except for Tina Turner, and she stopped being black about 10 years ago. MTV puts on little white punk groups who don't even have record deals. Blacks are missing exposure and sales.' On MTV's current roster of some 800 acts, 16 are black (Turner and Michael Jackson are the biggest names). 'We play rock and roll,' says an MTV spokesperson. 'We don't play Rick James because he's funk.'"
MTV was accused of being racist, which they countered by suggesting that few black artists recorded the kind of music that MTV featured (certainly a circular argument - their playlist resulted from demographic studies of a predominantly white audience). A particularly blatant example of racial exclusion was MTV's rejection of 5 Rick James videos even though Street Songs had sold over 4 million copies."

Not my quote homie.....

Great call...they did hate on the funk (and anything that seemed overtly Black)...But we all have to remember that MTV started when... '81? By 1982-83 Prince was making noise with the 1999 album...Now as much as tracks like "DMSR" and "Lady Cab Driver" were rolling in the funk, Prince's singles (1999, LRC, Delirious) were ROCK oriented tracks...So I would not put Prince in that early FUNK bunch of the '80s...Our boy could FUNK with the best of them, but he wasn't trying to be a FUNk artist back then...Dude was a rocker who could funk, which helped him cross-over in a big way (among other obvious reasons)....
[Edited 5/28/05 1:21am]

I'll take a Heniken instead pally.

I meant a small deal was made on the "Pieces Of Ice" video. Or a sidebar segment was featured so to speak.

We KNOW a big deal was made on the issue of African-American artists On MTV.

I remember one news segment where they didn't understand why "Pieces Of Ice" which featured a guitar solo by Walter Becker of Steely Dan wasn't being played while this lightweight Flock Of Segulls "synthpop" which sounded LESS like rock was being played.

The reason I mentioned Eddy Grant was here was a guy who didn't have that assilimated image, so Rick can't only say "They only picked a light guy" not me." If MTV DID do that because of Rick's protest's then yeah, that's foul.


But later, when Prince wanted to be independent they stopped playing his stuff too. Van Halen had to make their 96 ill-fated appearence with Dave so their video's would be played.

Feel free to correct this but at first MTV wouldn't touch early hip hop videos like "The Message" but..... "Hey, you mean kids in the suburbs like this stuff?" Yo, MTV raps.



It's the same thing today on Madision Avenue. It starts off as African American culture and when dollars signs are involved, it's "POP" culture. It's like the Richard Pryor joke: When it's in our neighborhood it's a problem. When it's in their neighboorhood it's an epidemic.

True True True!!!!!

But.....It was very foul because "Super Freak" was as funky as it was new wave. Dude was hitting over 3 million untits with Street Songs...But as far as Eddy goes, dude was a dredlock reggae rocker (reggae was accepted heavily by the white masses) and Eddy had a more rock sound than reggae....That helped..

As far as MTV fronting on Hip-hop...you are very right...very true...but they started opening up by '85 because they were embarrassed that they were being called racist, not to mention the young white kids started digging RUN DMC....


It's about money.

So.....???Rick was pissed, big deal...he was JEALOUS

I call cuts like Little Red Corvette and 1999 Funk/Rock . Let us not forget that after singles like Maggot Brain by Parliament and Vodoo Child by Hendrix. A new bar in Funk Rock was set so technically Prince was doing crossover Funk w/ a Rock twist. How can you forget about Hazel and Hendrix?
[Edited 5/28/05 2:10am]

Big Deal???? Yo, I know this is a Prince fan site, but if you are really aware of the early '80s music scene, you would know there were some valid points to Rick's beef as well as some pretty petty reasons....You can't simply dismiss Prince getting play on MTV early on just on the strength of playing a more rock oriented sound and being touted as "bi-racial" to cross-over... The fact is Prince was opening up for Rick no less than a year or two earlier...Rick had already turned out two previous platinum albums. And the man resented the fact that OUR BOY received some burn on MTV when Rick and other R&B artists were left outside the door...I'm a Prince cat like everyone else on this site, but I'm also a music fan...I wish some of you people would make an effort to look at all the sides to the story....Life is much easier that way.....

Well because his handlers and his label and Prince himself was touting our boy as an rock and roll artist...Remember I'm saying all this to say this is one of the reasons he was accepted on MTV and hardcore FUNK artists were not). We all know Maggot Brain (Parliment) and Hendrix (towards the end of his career with "Machine Gun") meshed funk and rock...But come on???? Litle Red Corvette was a Rock track, 1999 was a rock/pop with a hint of funk, but more rock than anything else, and Delirious was rockabilly....It was the sound that Prince would eventually push on Purple Rain..In music reviews critics referred to Prince as a rocker...He didn't heavy into the funk until the Parade Hit & Run tour.

MTV today, is still just as racist as they were back then. They are just hiding it better now. Back in the day, they refused to play funk artists or any artist that was too "black" because their music didn't fit in with MTV's pop/rock format. I can understand that arguement because I don't want to hear rock when I'm listening to funk and I also don't want to hear funk when I'm listening to rock. Mixing the two brings me down off the mood I'm feeling at the time.

However, I do find it very strange that when white kids started listening to rap and hip hop, MTV had absolutely no problem playing these videos. Rap and hip hop was also the furthest thing from MTV's pop/rock format at the time, just the same as funk was a few years earlier. It looks to me that MTV was not interested at all in following a certain format and strictly interested in keeping their white viewers happy.

Nowadays, the few times when MTV actually does play videos, they are almost dominated by rap and hip hop. This isn't because MTV has had a change of heart, this is because it is what is selling and white kids are the ones that made rap and hip hop the huge success that it became. If and when white kids ever lose interest in rap and hip hop, so will MTV. Also, if another form of black music emerges afterwards and white kids aren't into it, MTV will not play it, just like the old days.

A closet racist is much more dangerous than an open one.
[Edited 5/28/05 8:28am]

Vainandy, I always enjoy reading your posts but the above post is simply ridiculous. Yes, MTV does play whatever sells best (isn't that kinda logical anyway?) BUT I don't think they care who it sells to. At least not anymore. I mean come on, 70% of all videos on MTV are by black artists and you still find a way to somehow connect it with racism. No offence but that way of thinking is what keeps the racism alive.